CHAPTER THE FIRST.

THE TWO WOMEN.

Ir was a dark night. The rain was pouring in torrents. Late in the evening a skirmishing party of the French, and a skirmishing party of the Germans, had met by accident, near the little village of Lagrange, close to the German frontier. In the struggle that followed, the French had (for once) got the better of the enemy. For the time, at least, a few hundreds out of the host of the invaders had been forced back over the frontier. It was a trifling affair, occurring not long after the great German victory of Weissenbourg, and the newspapers took little or no notice of it.

Captain Arnault, commanding on the French side, sat alone in one of the cottages of the village, inhabited by the miller of the district. The captain was reading, by the light of a solitary tallow candle, some intercepted despatches taken from the Germans. He had suffered the wood fire, scattered over the large open grate, to burn low; the red embers only faintly illuminated a part of the room. On the floor behind him lay some of the miller's empty sacks. In a corner opposite to him was the miller's solid walnut-wood bed

On the walls all round him were the miller's coloured prints, representing a happy mixture of devotional and domestic subjects. A door of communication leading into the kitchen of the cottage had been torn from its hinges, and used to carry the men wounded in the skirmish from the field. They were now comfortably laid at rest in the kitchen, under the care of the French surgeon and the English nurse attached to the ambulance. A piece of coarse canvas screened the opening between the two rooms, in place of the door. A second door, leading from the bedchamber into the yard, was locked; and the wooden shutter protecting the one window of the room was carefully barred. Sentinels, doubled in number, were placed at all the outposts. The French commander had neglected no precaution which could reasonably insure for himself and for his men a quiet and comfortable night.

Still absorbed in his perusal of the despatches, and now and then making notes of what he read by the help of writing materials placed at his side, Captain Arnault was interrupted by the appearance of an intruder in the room. Surgeon Surville, entering from the kitchen, drew aside the canvas screen, and approached the little round table at which his superior officer was sitting.

'What is it?' said the captain sharply.

'A question to ask,' replied the surgeon. Are we safe for the night?'

'Why do you want to know?' enquired the captain, suspiciously.

The surgeon pointed to the kitchen-now the hospital devoted to the wounded men.

The poor fellows are anxious about the next few hours,' he replied. They dread a surprise; and they ask me if there is any reasonable hope of their having one night's rest. What do you think of the chances?' The captain shrugged his shoulders. The surgeon persisted. Surely you ought to know?' he said.

I know that we are in possession of the village for the present,' retorted Captain Arnault, and I know no more. Here are the papers of the enemy.' He held them up, and shook them impatiently as he spoke. "They give me no information that I can rely on. For all I can tell to the contrary, the main body of the Germans, outnumbering us ten to one, may be nearer this cottage than the main body of the French. Draw your own conclusions. I have nothing more to say.'

Having answered in those discouraging terms, Captain Arnault got on his feet, drew the hood of his great-coat over his head, and lit a cigar at the candle. Where are you going?' asked the surgeon.

To visit the outposts."

'Do you want this room for a little while?'

6 Not for some hours to come. Are you thinking of moving any of your wounded men in here?'

6

I was thinking of the English lady,' answered the surgeon. The kitchen is not quite the place for her. She would be more comfortable here; and the English nurse might keep her company.'

Captain Arnault smiled, not very pleasantly.

They

are two fine women,' he said, and Surgeon Surville is a ladies' man. Let them come in, if they are rash enough to trust themselves here with you.' He checked himself on the point of going out, and looked back distrustfully at the lighted candle. 'Caution the women,' he said, 'to limit the exercise of their curiosity to the inside of this room.'

What do you mean?'

The captain's forefinger pointed significantly to the closed window-shutter.

'Did you ever know a woman who could resist looking out of window?' he asked. 'Dark as it is, sooner or later these ladies of yours will feel tempted to open that shutter. Tell them I don't want the light of the candle to betray my head-quarters to the German scouts. How is the weather? Still raining?'

'Pouring.'

'So much the better. The Germans won't see us.' With that consolatory remark he unlocked the door leading into the yard, and walked out.

The surgeon lifted the canvas screen, and called into the kitchen:

'Miss Merrick, have you time to take a little rest?' 'Plenty of time,' answered a soft voice, with an underlying melancholy in it, plainly distinguishable though it had only spoken three words.

Come in then,' continued the surgeon, and bring the English lady with you. Here is a quiet room, all to yourselves.'

He held back the canvas, and the two women appeared.